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Crunch Sail Past Admirals
Syracuse, NY, (Friday, October 16, 2009)
Syracuse, NY (October 16, 2009) – Three unanswered goals by the Crunch helped lead to a 5-4 win over the Norfolk Admirals tonight, in front of 4,587 fans at the War Memorial at Oncenter.
A shootout at the OK Corral was probably not what you might have expected in the first period of tonight’s game since Norfolk came into the contest with just five goals in their first four games, but that’s exactly what happened with five combined first period markers between the two clubs.
The Crunch got on the board early again as they did Monday night in Rochester, taking a 1-0 lead just 48 seconds into the game. Jordan LaVallee-Smotherman worked the puck off the back boards and the carom came to Stefan Legein at the bottom of the left circle.
Legein took the puck from his backhand, did a quick spin move and fired the disk over the right shoulder of Norfolk rookie netminder Dustin Tokarski.
Syracuse, however, gave the lead up just two minutes later when Blair Jones’ shot clanged off the left post and veteran winger Mark Parrish cashed in on the rebound as Dan LaCosta sprawled across the crease to no avail, knotting the game at 1-1.
Ryan Craig gave Norfolk a 2-1 lead on the power play at the 6:45 mark before the Crunch tied the game once again four minutes after that.
Maksim Mayorov worked the puck to Brent Regner at the left point. Regner’s wrister was deflected in front of the net by Tom Sestito past Tokarski to make it 2-2, all before the game was 11 minutes old.
Norfolk would have the last laugh before the first 20 minutes was up when Paul Szczechura stuffed one by LaCosta, making it 3-2 Admirals at the 13:01 mark.
The Admirals went up 4-2 when Craig went hard to the net, deked to his backhand and slid the puck past LaCosta, bowling over Regner in the process at the 5:16 mark of the second.
The Crunch got back to within one when Mayorov buried his first of the season on a great cross-ice feed from Dan Fritsche past Tokarski from the bottom of the right circle.
Alexandre Picard scored his third of the year when he banged home a feed from Derek MacKenzie at the top of the crease to make it 4-4 four and a half minutes into the third period.
Syracuse completed its comeback less than two minutes later when Jared Aulin found the rebound of a Legein shot from the right side and slid the puck past Tokarski to give the Crunch a 5-4 lead.
The defense tightened up down the stretch and LaCosta ended with 22 saves on the night.
Three Stars:
- Stefan Legein
- Ryan Craig
- Tom Sestito
CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch have won every home game and lost every road game this season…With a goal and an assist each from Legein and Mayorov tonight, the Crunch have now had eight players with multiple-point games this season.